The release ceremony took place on the riverbank. Bird cages, fish bowls, baskets of crabs and snails were scattered about. Eyes were turned down to the river, waiting for the fish to slowly escape from buckets, basins and plastic bags. Eyes were turned up to the sky, waiting for the birds to stagger out of the cage doors.
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| Illustration: Thanh Hanh |
Nervous. Restless. So many prayers and wishes for health, money, fame and fortune were sent to bird cages and fish bowls... People happily boasted to each other about their compassion, whispering to each other about the price of compassion they had bought from bird trappers and fish catchers.
Fish in the bowl are crowded and sluggish, birds in the cage are featherless and frayed, asking each other why they were free in the water and free in the sky but were captured by humans to be released!
Down the river, there was a small boat. On the boat was a thin man wearing a life jacket, holding a net with an electric wire attached to it. His face was sullen and incomprehensible, his mouth curled up to reveal smoke-stained teeth…
Amidst the noisy crowd on the riverbank, there was a faint silhouette of a monk in a yellow robe, eyes half-closed, hands tapping the wooden fish in rhythm, the sound of chanting Amitabha Buddha drowned out in the hustle and bustle of the animal release ceremony.
***
In a small fish bowl, a female goldfish with a big belly was swaying, her mouth gasping intermittently due to lack of oxygen. Next to her was a male fish (probably with some experience from being released several times) advising the female with an egg belly: "When you go into the water, remember to close your gills, close your mouth, and breathe slowly to get used to the new water, or else you'll die from shock!". A young fish with a long body wagged its tail, splashing water everywhere, making its mouth itch, interrupting: "What water isn't water, we're about to go to the big river, haha!"...
The fish bowl was slowly tilted into the river by a pair of hands. The young, inexperienced fish aggressively swished its tail and jumped straight into the water. It happily opened its mouth wide, its gills wide open... in a flash, its red gills that were pulsing turned gray. The young, inexperienced fish opened its mouth and gasped, its body jerked and spun around, its belly turned up, floating on the river's surface...
The egg-bellied fish crawled out of the basin, trying to close its gills and mouth as the male fish told it to, slowly getting used to the temperature of the river water, but the egg-bellied belly containing thousands of creatures inside required so much oxygen that it made her suffocate. She opened her mouth wide and gasped, her red gills gradually turning dark purple. In a moment, her bloated egg-bellied belly flipped over... As for the male fish, experienced from several releases, he cleverly closed his gills and mouth, slowly letting himself drift with the current... On the shore, the chants of Amitabha Buddha resounded again, mixed with the sound of wooden fish.
In a corner of the river, a child's voice shouted: "Ah, turtle, turtle!". An old turtle with a moldy shell, streaked with ancient characters, was being carried towards the water's surface by a pair of human hands.
The old turtle struggled, the water was vast below. He shouted in the grand old voice that only his kind and God could understand: “Wait… Hey, wait, fly… I’m a mountain turtle, I live in the mountains! Wait… I’m dead! Splash! He choked, his four short legs fluttering. He tried to stretch his neck above the water to breathe, beside him were floating white fish bellies. He intended to turn around and climb ashore, but quickly swam away.
On the shore, there were many people, and there were even faint claps of hands to congratulate the old mountain turtle for being released into the water. The old turtle held his breath and floated, along with the few surviving fish that gradually escaped the noisy crowd, the whole group slowly drifted down to the end of the river.
The old turtle breathed a sigh of relief, in a little while he would reach the shore, he would climb up the bank to find a way up the mountain, his eternal territory. He raised his head above the water, took another big gulp of air to gain momentum to dive to the shore. Suddenly, a fishing boat appeared in front of him, a long pole with a net attached to its end, lowered down in front of him. The old turtle jumped up because of the electric current from the battery, its moldy shell covered with Chinese characters flipped upside down, before it turned its belly up to the sky, he still had time to see the face of the person on the boat open wide with a happy laugh...
The monk in yellow robe on the shore bent down and knocked on the wooden fish. Does the wooden fish sound dispel ignorance? Or does it sink sentient beings into ignorance? The wooden fish sound is senseless. Releasing or killing, ignorance or awakening, is up to sentient beings to find their way back! The monk closed his eyes and mumbled Amitabha Buddha…
Under the shade of the trees by the river, cages holding birds were collected nearly a week ago from bird trappers. Inside the cages, all kinds of birds were huddled together, their wings cramped and tattered, all missing the trees and the forest. There were even pairs of parent birds missing their young.
A couple of birds were standing bewildered in the cage, the father bird turned to the mother bird: "It seems like the cage door is about to open...". The mother bird quickly bent down to the feed trough, her beak full of food. In a moment, they might be able to return to the nest with the newly hatched chicks... A human hand slowly unlatched the cage door, the parent birds were eager... The cage door flew open, the people's voices were excited, the wishes hidden in the Buddha's chants followed the birds staggering up into the blue sky. In a moment, there were only empty cages and a few exhausted birds or birds with clipped wings or tails falling to the ground...
The parent birds, their beaks full of bran, instinctively flew back to the old nest, where their newborn babies had been waiting for them for nearly a week. The long flight made their wings tired. Finally, they reached the nest on a familiar tree branch, and the parent birds swooped down and perched on the edge of the nest…
The mother bird opened her beak in bewilderment, the small grains of bran, mixed with saliva from the long journey, fell all over the dead baby birds in the nest made of dry grass... The father bird raised his head and let out a series of hoarse and sorrowful cries...
The bird's nest is in the forest. The forest is in a very far away place!
The newly released parent birds did not hear the sounds of wooden fish and chanting Amitabha Buddha!
The hoarse cries of birds beside the dead baby birds could not reach the riverbank where people were holding a release ceremony.
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